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Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890 — John Shaqi

Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890Jones, John P. (John Percival)

History

Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890

Name: Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890
Author: Jones, John P. (John Percival)

Jones, John P. (John Percival)

Silver question -- Speeches in Congress

There have been the same evolutions of progress in money as in all other
things. In the rude original of society no kind of money was possible.
The first trade was by barter, after which, some one or more commodities
attainable in the vicinage, and in general use and demand were selected
as the common media through which all exchanges were filtered. The use
for that purpose of various metals by weight followed next, and, at a
succeeding stage, gold, silver, and copper by weight, and after this
their use in the form of coins, the value of which coincided with the
bullion-value, which must necessarily be the case when free coinage is
permitted.

It may be not uninteresting in this connection to have a general view of
the materials which, at different epochs of the world's history, have
been used as money. I therefore present a tabular statement giving those
particulars in chronological order.

  _Table showing some of the substances which have, at various periods
  and in various countries, been used as money._

  ---------+-----------------+--------------------------+---------------
   Period. |    Country.     | Substance used as money. |  Authority.
  ---------+-----------------+--------------------------+---------------
    B. C.  |                 |                          |
      1900 |Palestine        |Cattle, and gold and      |The Scriptures.
           |                 |  sliver, by weight.      |
           |Arabia           |Gold and silver coins     |Jacob.
           |Phoenicia        |Gold, silver, and copper  |Anonymous.
           |                 | coins                    |
           |Phoenician colony|Same (some still extant)  |Carter.
           |  in Spain.      |                          |
      1200 |Phrygia          |Coins, by Queen of Pelops |Julius Pollux.
      1184 |Greece           |Brass coins               |Homer.
       862 |Argos            |Gold and silver coins, by |Dictionary of
           |                 |  Phidon.                 |  Dates.
    70-500 |Rome             |Brass, by weight          |Jacob.
       578 |Rome             |Copper coins              |Ibid.
  Uncertain|Carthage         |Leather or parchment      |Socrates, Dial.
           |                 |  money, first "paper     |  on Riches,
           |                 |  bills" known.           |  Journal des
           |                 |                          | Economistes,
           |                 |                          |  1874, p. 354.
  B. C. 491|Sicily           |Gold coins, by Gelo (some |Jacob.
           |                 |  still extant).          |
       480 |Persia           |Gold coin, by Darius (two |Ibid.
           |                 |  still extant).          |
       478 |Sicily           |Gold coin, by Hiero (some |Ibid.
           |                 |  still extant).          |
       407 |Athena.          |Debased gold coins,       |MacLeod, 476.
           |                 | foreign                  |

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Money: Speech of Hon. John P. Jones, of Nevada, on the Free Coinage of Silver; in the United States Senate, May 12 and 13, 1890

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